It has been a while since I updated and I blame life and responsibilities. I am offering 2 chapters for the price of one this time.
I do not own these characters or their setting. All I claim authorship to are the words written here.
Chapter 12: The Lost Boy
Charming held his breath as he waited for his love to open her eyes and give him one of her heart melting smiles. What seemed like hours passed and nothing happened. His faced scrunched up into a frown.
"Snow, sweetie you need to work with me here." A panicked edge crept into his voice. "True loves kiss is about the only thing I have left. If that does not work, frankly I am all out of ideas." He sighed and continued, "Look I can ask you to come back because I love you and need you and would be lost without you. All of that is true. But it is about more than just the two of us, maybe it always was. This baby needs you, Emma needs her mother and Henry needs his grandma."
He reached out for her hand and laced her fingers through his and leaned over her.
"Let's try this again." He kissed her throwing aguish and fear and love all into the kiss. He rested his hand on her stomach and he could have sworn that he felt a jolt of power shoot through his body. He recognized it as once, it was pure love. He felt it when he woke her in the forest and he felt it when he was on the verge of leaving Storybrooke.
Her eyes fluttered open and she gave him a heart stopping smile.
"It was about time you woke up." He sighed with relief. "I was starting to think maybe I am no longer your True Love."
She tilted her head to one side and gave him a puzzled look.
"Well, I think we had better put that rumor to rest."
She pulled him towards her and kissed him enthusiastically, biting his lower lips playfully in the process.
"Any lingering doubts about the power of true loves kiss?" She asked teasingly.
He thought for a split second.
"I think we need to try again, just to make sure." He leaned over and kissed her again. He could feel her tense in his embrace though.
"What's wrong?" He asked with tender concern in his voice.
"That should be my question," She replied wearily. "Am I in the hospital?" Her eyes filled with concern.
"Yes, but you are fine and so is the baby." He gave her a reassuring smile.
"Did Emma tell you about the baby?" She asked, then before he could answer she continued, "Is Emma okay? Did she find Henry?"
"Emma is fine and she is still looking for Henry." He tried to keep his voice calm.
"We have to find him before Regina finds out he is missing!"
Panic set in and she tried to stand up, but the room spun and her head felt as if it were stuffed with cotton. Fortunately her husband was there to catch her before she fell.
He settled her back on the bed just as the nurse reappeared. A shocked look crossed her face when she saw her patent lying in the hospital bed supported by her husband.
"You are awake?" The nurse asked, staring in disbelief. "Your chart says that you were unresponsive."
"What does that mean?" Snow asked her husband.
"It means that they could not figure out what was wrong with you, or how to help you, so they wrote you off as a lost cause." He answered truthfully. "I, on the other hand, would never give you up as a lost cause.
The nurse looked perturbed, "It is a little more complicated than that. It was based on your BMR and heart rate and brain activity." The nurse noticed that they were completely ignoring her and giving each other an adoring look.
"Maybe I will just go see if I can find the ultrasound technician and see if he can do another ultrasound scan." The nurse backed out of the room.
Snow gave her husband a pout. "You got the see the baby?"
A thousand watt smiled crossed the face of her husband.
"You bet I did and what a gorgeous thing we created. I got to tell you Snow, we are one hell of a baby creating machine. First Emma and now this little guy or girl..." He was almost bouncing off the walls with happiness.
She gave him a serious look.
"So, that means that you couldn't tell if it was a girl or a boy?"
"Our child was being coy." He laughed.
"Good, because I want us to be together when we find out if we are having a boy or a girl." She stated firmly.
He smiled, "That is what I want as well. Snow I cannot wait for you to see this child. If you have the same reaction that I did, you are going to fall in love at first sight."
"I never doubted that. I worry about our other child though." There was worry in her eyes.
"Emma knows about the baby and she doesn't seem too traumatized." He held onto her hand tightly lacing her finger through his.
"Still I would like to do something special for her and Henry on their birthdays." Snow stated.
"We could have a party for the two of them at the diner." Charming suggested.
"I love that idea!" Snow pulled him to her and kissed him quickly. Not because she did not want to linger, but because the ultrasound technician interrupted.
"Let's get started." The technician stated as he walked into the room and started to hook up the machine. "I see our sleeping beauty has awoken."
Snow was about to correct him and point out that Sleeping Beauty was an entirely different person when the image began to form on the monitor.
Snow titled her head and looked puzzled.
"What am I looking at?" She asked.
The technician laughed and was about to answer, but her husband beat him.
He pointed at the screen.
"Look there is the perfect head of our beautiful child and there are the arms and the legs." He excitedly pointed to the screen and it was if by magic, she could see it too. She grasped her husband's hand in her own and wanted to tell him that he was right she was in love with this child, but the words would not come. Snow White had never before been struck speechless, but at that moment the feelings were just too overwhelming. Her husband had a huge grin on his face as he watched the tiny marvel twist and turn to a tune all its own.
"The little thing is being stubborn and refusing to revel if it is a boy or a girl." The technician squinted at the screen.
Charming laughed, "Imagine that, Snow, our child is being stubborn!"
"I think our child is wonderful." She smiled at her husband and held onto his hand a little tighter.
The technician looked at her chart. "Everything seems to be moving along just fine. Dr. Murphy's notes from your clinic visit this morning indicate that he believed the child was conceived about 8 weeks ago?"
"Yes, that sounds about right." Snow nodded her head
"The baby was conceived in the in the room that I was renting above Granny's?" he was actually beaming with pride.
"Yes." She gave her Prince Charming a reassuring look.
"This machine measures the approximant weight and length and judging from those numbers, I would say that you are closer to 12 weeks along."
Snow frowned, "That is impossible. My husband and I were not together 12 weeks ago. That was during the time when we were not together." She stated simply
A guilty look crossed the technician's face. Sometimes, technology gave away more information than it should. Sorting out the problem of paternity was their problem, not his. "Sometimes the machine is wrong." Was all he would the comment he would make.
When the technician was gone, Snow White looked up at her husband and gave him a reassuring smile.
"He is wrong about the date our child was conceived." She insisted.
"Of course he is wrong." Her husband kissed her hand.
His face was unreadable though and that had her concerned.
The nurse came in to take Snow back up to her room.
"I am fine!" She insisted.
"The doctor will need to give you an examination and then sign your discharge papers. It should take an hour or so. You can wait in the hall or comeback for her." The nurse informed Charming.
His wife gave him a questioning look.
"I punched Whale and he banned me from the room." He told her sheepishly.
Snow grinned and gave her husband an adoring look, "He had it coming! Go home and check in with Emma and see if the two of you can figure out a way for us to get Henry back without risking any of our lives!"
Charming kissed his wife goodbye and trying to dismiss the lingering doubts he felt over the information the technician had shared.
Chapter 13 Search Me
Emma was eating a sandwich when Charming got back to the apartment.
"How did it go with Gold, did he have any insights on how we should go about the task of getting back Henry?" He asked as he went to the kitchen to make himself a sandwich.
"He wasn't at his shop, his assistant said to come back in a couple of hours." She answered.
"Since when does Gold have an assistant?" Her father asked.
"She showed up around the time the curse was broken." Emma took another bite of her sandwich.
Charming sat down across from her.
"Did you eat all the Swiss cheese?" He stared at his sandwich with a look of disappointment on his face.
"Sorry, there is American cheese in the side drawer of the fridge." She shrugged.
"I hate American cheese." He grumbled.
"Me too, that is why I ate the Swiss. Any change at the hospital? How is Mary Margaret?" Emma asked.
Charming took a bite of his sandwich and made a face, chewed and swallowed before he answered.
"I kissed her and she woke up. She is going to be fine." He reluctantly ate another bite.
Emma stared at him in shock.
"Is it really that easy for the two of you? One kiss makes everything alright?"
He gave his daughter a thoughtful look.
"Nothing is easy, Emma."
"What's wrong?" She asked with genuine concern in her voice.
"I am thinking about Dr. Whale's suggestion about a DNA test." He said quietly.
Emma looked at him as if he had grown two heads.
"Are you insane? He is trying to mess with your head."
"The technician mentioned that the baby might have been conceived during a time when your mother and I were apart." He pushed aside his sandwich.
"When did this immaculate conception happen?" She asked rolling her eyes and got up from a table. She brought out a pocket calendar and started flipping through the pages.
"12 weeks ago." He reluctantly admitted.
"Impossible, she was not fertile 12 weeks ago. It was 8 weeks ago or not at all." She showed him the calendar with X's on some of the dates.
"You keep track?" He asked in a shocked voice.
"I have been keeping track of my cycle ever since Henry was born. I wanted to make sure that I didn't get any more surprises. The two of us have the same cycle, so I can tell you exactly when she was most likely to get pregnant. The two of you hit the jackpot the day I arrested her."
Emma sat back down across the table from her stunned father.
"Sometimes I don't understand you. The two of you talk about your love as if it were some kind of epic, curse breaking affair and then you turn around and let someone like Whale make you half way believe that you aren't the father of the baby she is carrying. How does that kind of mental whiplash work?" She asked sarcastically.
"I guess when you have something as powerful as what your mother and I share, one or the other of us is always waiting for it to get taken away." He sighed. "I am a shepherd who was lucky enough to marry a princess. I guess a part of me will always wonder if she could have done better."
Emma was stunned.
"You think she cares about your background? I've read the book. She had plenty of chances to find someone else and she kept picking you over and over. I have to admit, I am mystified by it myself, but I wouldn't be around if she had chosen someone else. So I guess I am thankful for the mystery of love."
"Can we not mention this conversation to your mother?" He asked softly.
"As far as I am concerned, I never want to mention this conversation ever again. Although, I now understand what Doc must have felt like when he had to have that conversation with you before I was born" Emma shuddered at the idea.
"Snow told you about that?" He asked in a perturbed tone. "What else did she tell you about our love life?"
"More than any daughter ever needed to know. Let's go pick her up at the hospital and the two of you can discuss it together."
"I had better go make her a sandwich." He got up and headed for the kitchen.
"The last time she had anything to eat was this morning. You had better make six sandwiches." She called after him.
Snow was so happy to be released from the hospital that she practically threw herself into the arms of her husband and daughter the minute they walked through the door.
The nurse insisted that she had to be taken out in a wheelchair, but Snow adamantly refused.
"My family will take care of me." She insisted as she held on tightly to Charming and Emma. "I do not remember there being so many rules when I was a volunteer." She stated when they were free of the imposing building.
"It is a little different when you are a patient." Charming told her firmly. "Are you sure you are up to helping us find Henry. We can take you home if you need to rest." He gave her a concerned look.
"I'm fine, except I'm starving." She replied wistfully.
Her husband grinned broadly. "We thought you might need a snack, so we brought sandwiches."
He held up a bag, which she grabbed eagerly. She sat down on a bench and dug into the bag.
"There was no Swiss cheese, you can blame Emma!" He dead panned.
Their daughter rolled her eyes in mock frustration.
Between bites of her sandwich Snow asked, "What is the plan? I think we should check out Regina first and foremost."
"Regina claims not to know anything about Henry's disappearance." Charming shrugged.
"Do you believe her?" Snow asked.
"Emma does and that is good enough for me." He replied with conviction.
Emma seemed caught off guard by the compliment.
"Where does that leave us?" Snow asked. "We can't follow Henry to Boston. We tried that this morning and the results were disastrous."
"Where it leaves us is in a place that I don't like to be, relying on Gold for answers. Earlier today Emma and Regina went to talk to him, but he was out."
"Then we had better go see if he has returned." Snow stated with determination in her voice.
The three of them stood apprehensive in the door way to Gold's shop.
"What a Charming family." Gold cooed his voice as smooth as silk. "I see one of you is missing?"
"What do you know about Henry's disappearance?" Emma demanded.
"Has the lad wandered off, perhaps you should have kept a better watch over him?" Gold scolded.
"He left a note saying that he was going to Boston." Snow stated.
"Well, that is hardly likely. Unless he sprouted wings and flew there. There have been no cars coming or going today and he hardly could have afforded to call a cab." Gold reminded them.
Snow felt the urge to check on her credit cards.
"He took the bus the last time I went to Boston." Emma stated.
"Belle, Luv, has a bus bound for Boston traveled through town today?" Gold asked the pretty young woman who was standing behind the counter.
She sighed and answered, "No and I should know because I have been staring out the window for hours. This town is so boring!" She pouted.
Gold ignored her tirade.
"There you have it, straight from the mouth of the lovely lady. So, dearies, I believe that leaves us to draw one possible conclusion…"
Snow finished his thought, "Henry never left; He is hiding somewhere."
"Give the lady a prize for deduction." Gold stated with a flourish of his hands.
"We have to find him before Regina does!" Emma stated franticly, echoing the statement made earlier by her mother. She turned and left the shop. Her parents were hot on her heels.
Belle turned to Gold. "I want a baby!" She told him softly.
"How about we get a dog?" He replied.
Outside the pawn shop Emma nearly collided with Regina. The latter waved a piece of paper in her face.
"I was on my way down to the courthouse to file this." Regina coolly informed her.
"Regina, we don't have time for games." Emma sighed.
"I assure you that I am not playing games. This document relieves you of custody of Henry on the grounds of sever neglect." The evil queen smirked.
"We have not neglected Henry!" Snow stated through gritted teeth.
"Then you know where my son is at this very moment?" She asked sarcastically.
"Of course we know where he is, "Charming lied. "We are on our way to pick him up right now. If you file that document and then we present Henry to the judge, you are going to look foolish." Now Charming smirked.
Regina eyed him with suspicion. "I am in a good mood and the important thing is getting Henry back safe. If you show up with him at Granny's in two hours, than I am willing to forget that any of this happened.
When she was gone, Charming turned to his wife and daughter.
"Emma find Red and the two of you search the North woods. Snow and I will talk to team 7 and Granny and have them search in town and then the two of us will search the South woods. We will find him, Emma."
She didn't seem convinced. "How can you be sure?"
"It's what we are best at doing!" Snow reminded her with conviction in her voice.
She gave her daughter a reassuring hug and followed Charming to his truck.